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Discovery of body leads year in crime

Stabbing led to death

By Rachel Alexander

Times Editor

Posted:
01/02/2014 09:09:55 AM MST

The story of a year would not be complete without the stories of crimes committed during it.

Among the crime stories The Times covered during 2013 were the discovery of a Fort Morgan teen's body a year after her disappearance, a rise in motor vehicle thefts and a Log Lane Village trustee being charged with aiding an escape.

Kayla Chadwick

Kayla Chadwick was 17 when she went missing on March 28, 2012. She was a senior at Fort Morgan High School. She was also a student at Morgan Community College.

The community searched for her for more than a year.

That search ended when her remains were found on June 27, 2013 on Morgan County Road W. She was identified through DNA analysis on July 3 by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

The remains were discovered through information obtained in an ongoing investigation of the events on the night Chadwick was reported missing. Because the investigation is ongoing, the details of that information cannot be disclosed at this time, police said.

Two services were held to honor Chadwick's memory on July 16 — one was held at Life Fellowship Church in Fort Morgan and the second was held at the site where she was found.

"This morning we're here to honor Kayla's life," said Pastor Bob Duffield at Life Fellowship. "Take from here a memory, something that will begin the process of healing, of closure."

Chadwick's disappearance occurred after she visited the home of her boyfriend, Ivan Torralba, and they reportedly argued.

Torralba is facing charges stemming from an indictment issued by the 13th Judicial District Grand Jury for perjury and attempt to influence a public servant, both class four felonies, as well as tampering with physical evidence, a class six felony. The indictment was in connection with allegedly hindering the investigation by concealing the whereabouts of a gun reportedly brandished during the couple's argument.

He also faces charges in a second case on violation of bond conditions, violation of a protection order and possession of marijuana by a minor. Those charges were filed after investigators executed a search warrant at the Torralba residence in June of 2013.

Torralba's mother, Lucila Torralba, is also facing charges of perjury and attempt to influence a public servant that were filed in June of 2013.

District Attorney Brittny Lewton announced in September that no additional charges will be filed in the case.

All of the cases for both Torralbas are being heard in Logan County District Court.

Stabbing death

Cassandra Bustos, 34, and Cody Tucker, 19, each were charged with felony first-degree burglary and misdemeanor third-degree assault during an incident in which 20-year-old Christopher Hernandez was stabbed at 126 S. Curtis St., Apt. A, in Brush on June 19.

Hernandz later died of his wounds at East Morgan County Hospital.

Bustos told police she was trying to reclaim her possessions from that apartment, where she lived briefly. She said she had gotten Tucker and Hernandez to help her pick up her things.

However, while she had a key to the property's back door, she did not have any lawful right to enter it, making her actions and those of Tucker burglary, according to prosecutors.

While Bustos, Tucker and Hernandez were at the apartment, they had an altercation with resident Anthony Reyez, who admitted stabbing both Hernandez and Tucker but who also said he was was defending himself from allegedly being assaulted by Hernandez, Tucker and Bustos at that time.

Reyez is not facing any charges in the incident, which happened at his home during the alleged commission of a burglary and while he allegedly was being assaulted.

Reyez told Brush police that he had "grabbed a knife" to protect himself after he was threatened and then hit by Tucker and Hernandez and "choked out" by Tucker, which caused Reyez to black out, according to the Brush Police Officer Corey Hardy's 48-page arrest affidavit against Tucker.

"I asked (Reyez) if he was worried he had done anything wrong for what had happened, and he stated that he did not; he stated they broke into his house, and he was trying to protect his kids, his family,"

Hardy wrote in the arrest affidavit. "He stated that he didn't want to do it, and then expressed physical remorse by crying."

Reyez also told Hardy that he has ties to the North Siders gang in Greeley, and alleged that Hernandez had ties to the Surenos gang, but said that there were not any serious problems because of the ties to different gangs.

Hardy also spoke with Bustos and Tucker about the incident, and those interviews were also recounted in the arrest affidavit.

Bustos told Hardy that she heard Tucker mention the knife and she saw Hernandez get stabbed. She also said she hit Reyez a couple times, according to the arrest affidavit.

Tucker told Hardy that one of the triggers for the fighting was posts on Facebook. Tucker said Hernandez and Reyez were wrestling when Tucker heard something about a knife, which he tried to get away from Reyez, and that was when Tucker got stabbed, according to the arrest affidavit. Tucker also told Hardy that he had put Reyez in a choke hold.

Hardy noted in the arrest affidavit that there were inconsistencies between Bustos' and Tuckers' stories about what they did and where they were during the June 19 incident.

Hardy also tracked the history Bustos had with Reyez, Hernandez and Tucker in his interviews with them.

Bustos apparently knew Reyez and Hernandez from when she worked at the now-closed Kidz Ark residential youth treatment facility near Sterling and they were residents there, according to Tucker's arrest affidavit.

Tucker was Hernandez' friend from childhood.

Motor vehicle thefts

The Fort Morgan Police Department reported in March that motor vehicle thefts appear to be on the rise in the city.

During the first part of 2013, twice as many vehicles were reported stolen compared to the same time period last year.

The department had taken four stolen vehicle reports as of March 6, which was nearly half of the total number of similar reports in 2012. These numbers did not include three other thefts that occurred in Morgan County.

In all of the thefts that occurred in Fort Morgan, the keys to the vehicle were left inside the cars or trucks where the thief could find them.

Two of the stolen vehicles were recovered nearby in the county.

One vehicle was crashed and abandoned in the city limits.

The fourth was recovered in Greeley.

Aiding-an-escape

Sanjuana "Jeanie" Cardona, 53, is a Log Lane Village trustee and she now faces a felony charge in connection with the escape of her former brother-in-law Enrique Cardona in December 2012. If convicted, she could receive four to 12 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections.

Enrique Cardona, 54, faces felony charges in both Logan and Morgan County, including those related to the alleged escape in Logan County in December 2012 and those related to an alleged kidnapping and assault in Morgan County on the morning of New Year's Eve 2012.

Plea negotiations are ongoing in Sanjuana Cardona's case and case has been set over multiple times.